Friday, March 14, 2008

031408

Well, i thought i'd talk today about "the Comics World" and what the major problems i see going on with in it.

In 2008 i feel, that no 2 artist work should look the same, and it shouldn't really. i mean lets face facts, with computer and wacom tablets, scanners and such, there really is on reason. we are at a point where we can create almost anything we can imaging, but we don't.

Why? lack of imagination, lack of vision, lack of talent? well thats a big part of it sure, but is it the artist who lack these thing? sure, in many cases it is... but not always.

Editors, publishers, people doing the hiring and signing the checks are really to blame and here's why.

Small publisher wants to put out a book, they think if the can find the next Jim Lee, their book will sell. Not so, because nobody wants piss poor Jim Lee, when for the same price or less, they can get the real thing, and with Batman in it no less. I see allot of post up with publishers looking for Joe Mad like, or J Scott Campbell ish or Jim Lee like artist... again, those guys are out of these publishers price range and they think getting a knock off will help sell the book.

Why? even if an artist draw "like" one of the formentioned artist, the second they open the book, and look inside and see it's just a poor mans version of, it goes right back on the shelf or table... real shit, i've seen it for 20 years.

I think this mind set is killing indy comics and making it that much harder for artists who have their own voice and style to make anyhead way. hell nothing hurts a writer more then to be saddle with an artist who's doing a rip of a big name artist, because now they are connected to bad knock offs. if the art is a poor mans, this or that, then would it stand to reason that the writing or story is also going to be a knock off or bad version of too..

think about for a second. if you see a team of superheros and it's drawn like piss poor Jim Lee, it's going to say "X-Men knock off" and we saw it in the 90's, nobody want's to read an indy book of some unknowns riff of the x-men, when for the same price or less, they can read the real thing.

sorry, but it's true. in fact because publishers don't grasp this is a big reason WHY diamond distribution keeps making it hard on indy comic companies to go threw them. they realize there is too much garbage taking up space in their warehouse. so someone who's trying to do something different, and build a fan bases by filling a void left in the market can't get in, because these other fools screwed it up by releasing knock off books.

everyone's sick of poor man's version of stuff and it needs to stop.

So, with that said, my partner in crime Derrick Williams and I are doing just that. Are work may not be the greatest, it may not be the best writing, or whatever, but you will never see us ripping off, working with people who are ripping off or doing thing that are poor mans versions of anything. you won't be getting charged 3 dollars for 20 pages of story that may never come to an end, with 12 pages of ads for shit nobody cares about.

Where changing the game by not going to diamond, our stuff will only be availible threw us, online and at conventions, where gonna build it slow, with quality and low print runs 1000 copies or so. no issues 1, 2, 3's and zeros or halfs. when you pic up a 16 page book from us, your getting 16 pages of what you paid for, art and story. and where also trying to keep the prices low, and resonable. we're trying to do it right and raise the bar a little, by not cheating the consumer.

and that's all the time i have for today, our first stop is Hero's Con in June, so tell all your friends to come out and see what where all about this summer.

we're willing to put our money where our mouth it, we talk the talk, and this summer you'll see we walk the walk.

1 comment:

I think you're dead on with this one--whenever I venture into a comic shop I leave with what looks different. Half the books out there now look like the same shit, both in inking and in coloring style.

(Namely, it seems like the comics industry just now discovered the burn tool and the lens flare but didn't figure out that they're really, really tacky.)

That said, I'm glad to see you guys doing new, strange stuff. Fresh blood should always be welcome.